Performance of ion exchange resin as solid catalyst for the esterification of acetic acid with ethanol

Esterification of acetic acid with ethyl alcohol was carried out in the presence of a cation exchange resin. The resin used was Lewatit S1467, which is commercially available at a low cost and used commonly in the water treatment industry. The catalyst pretreated with HCl showed higher acetic acid conversions. The acidic cation exchange resin treated with HCl was examined for catalyst loading, reaction temperature and reusability. The highest acetic acid conversion of 58 % was observed for acetic acid to ethanol mole ratio of 1:1 at 335 K with a 5.4 % (w/w) catalyst loading. The experimental data were fitted with the pseudo homogeneous model, and the heterogeneous models Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) and Eley- Rideal (ER). LH model provided a better agreement with the experimental kinetic data, and the activation energy was found to be about 58 kJmol-1.